Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 205

Chapter 205: Afternoon Debrief

Lysette powered through another sleepless night tending to the thirty-one surviving prisoners who attacked Ciricu on the night of the blood moon.  Beginning with Julianna, by far the most powerful of the captives, Lysette employed her Essence Siphon to ensure that none of them would be able to again threaten her adoptive hometown.

As she worked on her tireless task, she discovered another benefit of the technique that her demonic mentor had considered a waste of precious resources.  Essence Siphon carried a pleasurable sensation, but it didn’t carry with it the sheer euphoria that accompanied directly extracting a Spark.  It was more restrained, and more importantly, far less addictive.

Lysette thought back to her conversation with Danitha about a month earlier.  About how she would try not to succumb to the temptation to solve every problem with violence and killing.  But she knew that the rush that came with taking a life was simply too great.  That every time she did, the next one would become that much easier.  That it was already far easier than it should be to take lives than it should be.

She thought of that woman, eyes full of fear and resignation.  It was justified, yes.  She had gone after the lives of innocent civilians after being warned multiple times.  But, just like with the others, she was of no threat.  Not to the villagers, who were protected by Serrena and the others.  And certainly no more of a threat than a harmless insect to her.

She could have been spared.  No matter how justified, no matter her rage, no matter how brightly her Reciprocity shined within her, telling her to enact her righteous fury upon the woman, she took the life of a soldier who could have been threatened.

She was a soldier who deserved death.  In any other situation, had it been anyone else fighting her that night, she would have been killed regardless.  But maybe could have and would have been spared were Lysette kinder and more thoughtful, and better still at restraining those demonic tendencies.

Soon after dawn, Lilia, Gerald, and Serrena got to work constructing a larger holding facility just outside Ciricu.  With the town’s jail population already maxed out at six, they needed a new place to hold the captives while deciding their ultimate fate.  It wasn’t a fancy building— a structure of fired mud bricks about sixty feet square, cordoned off into forty cells about ten feet square, plus some hallways and an entrance and administration section near the front door.

By lunchtime, as the first captives were regaining consciousness, a rudimentary building had been erected.  It was still missing far more creature comforts than Lysette would have liked to give her prisoners— no lighting crystals installed in the ceiling, little more than a septic tank and some holes for waste disposal, and little more padding on the beds than some hair that Kiarra offered.  But it offered shelter from the elements and a secure environment to protect the now-depowered captives.  An acceptable temporary solution.

After a lunch of cornbread and creamed corn porridge, Lysette entered the cell where Colonel Julianna was being held.  Though no more decorated or furnished than any of the other makeshift rooms, it was— at Serrena’s and Kiarra’s insistence— a bit larger and more well-lit, with a larger skylight and windows upon both external walls of the corner room.  It was also the first to be installed with a proper toilet, crafted once again by Gerald’s rapidly-improving ability to manipulate brick and ceramics.

Julianna looked up at Lysette.  “So much for ‘So you can just die’, I see.  Rather than a clean death, here I am, trapped as your prisoner.  So what have you come to do?  Gloat in your victory?  Torture me for information?”

“I just came to talk.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you, demon.”

Lysette pulled a small seed out of her pocket and, with a bit of her stamina, caused it to sprout into a chair-shaped shrub upon which she sat.  She motioned to the ground where Julianna sat.  “Would you like a chair as well?”

“What difference does it make?  I don’t know what you hope to accomplish by leaving me alive while you mercilessly slaughtered the brave men and women who served under my command, you fell demon child.  So just do what you came here to do and end me already.”

Lysette took a deep breath.  “Eight of the thirty-eight soldiers who accompanied you last night did perish in your mission.  The other thirty are still very much alive.  They, like you, have been depowered, as we currently lack the infrastructure and funding to leave so many enemy combatants secured.  But they are still very much alive, and should all make a full recovery.”

“Was there a young woman among them?  Well, about my age, short hair, probably half a head shorter than I?  Wielded Wind-element techniques, really cute?”

“I don’t know about ‘cute’ or what kind of techniques she used, but I seem to recall someone fitting that description.  If memory serves, she’s in a cell a few doors down.”

“Oh sweet Kathleen,” Julianna muttered under her breath.

“Were you two close?”

“As close as any combat couple could be.”

“If you’d like to see her later, I’m sure I can make that happen.  Although, first, I’d like you to answer a couple of questions for me.”

“Before I do, if I might ask.  Was there an older woman among them?  About the age of our mothers, if I had to guess?”

“I–  I’m sorry.  I’m afraid she didn’t survive the attack.  Tonight, the people of Ciricu will honor her memory and the memory of the other seven others who died last night.”

“T–  Thank you.  It is a burden lifted from my shoulders to know that at least her soul will be soothed and her memory preserved.”

Lysette again took a deep breath, wholly unwilling to mention what exactly happened to the victims of demonkind.

“Now then,” she continued, “I want to ask why you called me a demon earlier.  It’s one thing that I’ve been called a cult leader, or a criminal, or a heretic, or a warlord, or monster, or any number of other things.  But you specifically called me a demon.  And not just once, but twice.  I don’t think you’d stumbled upon that particular word by chance.  So I’d like to know why.”

Julianna hesitated.  Lysette willed the plant she sat upon to grow a new branch and, after about fifteen seconds, a small red apple appeared, fully grown and smelling ripe.

Lysette tossed it to her captive.  “It’s still a bit hard for me to grow them more than one or two at a time, but here, have one, if you’d like.”

Julianna took a bite and puckered her face immediately.  “Sour!”

“Yeah, growing whips out of xylem and bark is easy enough, but getting all the fruiting compounds just right is a real pain.  Ultimately, I’d like to be able to use these powers to produce larger quantities of Essence plants and rare herbs like dragonroot and phoenix root, but that’s still a long way off, even for me.”

“You– want to cultivate some of the rarest and most valuable plants on Aimarion?”

“It’d be difficult for sure.  I’m pretty sure most of the rarest ones have to absorb ambient Essence from the environment for decades or even centuries before they fruit.  I’m not sure any such technique would allow me to grow them outright.  But there are plenty of more mundane compounds that have less potent, but still useful, antivenin, sedative, and analgesic qualities.”

“Sounds like you have quite the task ahead of you.”

“I do.  But to circle back around, I’d like to know why you called me a demon.”

“That’s…  That’s what I was told, Lyse.  That a terrible demon was gathering her forces in Ciricu and amassing an army to one day scour all of Aimarion under her infernal embrace.  That we— by that I mean, I and the contingent who joined me— were tasked with a holy mission to eradicate that menace before she entered the final stages of her plan.  And that, if we failed, she would even rise up to smite the very gods who created and guide our world.”

Lysette smiled.  “Do I look like a terrible demon to you?”

Julianna rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know what a demon looks like.  I couldn’t tell you one way or the other if you’re a terrible demon.”

“Who was the one who said all this?  Did this come from the Archduke of Terea himself?  I’m sure he’s not happy that I’ve claimed a portion of his territory for my own, but I’m surprised he’s resorted to calling me a demon like that.”

“No, this was actually from the Highest Priestess of Thosse, who also lives in the capital of Seliora.  She had specifically chosen my unit for this task.”

“I understand that Terea is, in many ways, a theocracy connected to the worship of the Sea Goddess Thosse.  However, is it typical for the Highest Priestess of Thosse to directly command the armies of Terea under the Archduke?”

“It–”  Julianna looked around before continuing in a hushed voice.  “It is not common, but it is not unheard of either.  However, the exact interrelation between the two is not widely known outside of the high echelons of the military.  Even as a colonel, it’s more a coincidence of being the commanding officer of the assignment than military policy that even I know exactly how deep the connection goes.”

Lysette nodded.  That was about as close to proof as she was likely to get that either this Highest Priestess or the Archduke was also Thosse’s Godslayer.  And of the two, the former seemed far more likely with this new information.

“I’ll be right back,” Lysette said.

She closed and latched the door behind her and made her way to a cell along the back wall where Kathleen was being held.  When Lysette opened the door and the two made eye contact, the diminutive captive charged at Lysette with rage in her eyes, only to have her assault blunted by a wall of ice.  She remained undeterred, grimacing and clenching her fists, but when she flailed them at Lysette’s wall of ice, she was repelled back to the ground with a thud.

“Ow!  What the shit just happened?” Kathleen asked.

“You tried to tackle me, and I defended myself.”

“No, you sick bastard!  I mean why can’t I conjure my Air Blades?  I can barely even create a tiny gust.”

“I can’t very well expect you not to try anything against the good people of this town if you can just conjure a tornado on a whim.  So I removed your Cultivation.  You’re now only a little stronger than an untrained human.”

“You!  You truly are a monster!   Loathsome… Asshole!”

“I must implore you to try a little harder, Kathleen.  Your girlfriend called me a demon just a few minutes ago.  Asshole feels kinda weak by comparison.”

“You lie!  I saw you kill her!  You killed my Julianna in cold blood like the heartless monster you are!”

“You mean right after I said I was going to kill all of you and right before I killed you?  Now, the first of those is true, and the third of those is pretty clearly false.  But rather than taking my word for it, would you like to come see her for yourself?”

Kathleen took a breath and unclenched her fists.  “Wait, I never told you my name, did I?”

“Julianna mentioned it, actually.  That’s why I’m here.  Now, would you like to come with me and spend some time with her, or do you want to continue attacking me?”

Kathleen stood up and lowered her head.  “Take me.”

And Lysette did, back down the hallway to Julianna’s room.  When she opened the door and the two lovers’ eyes met, Kathleen and Julianna made a mad dash into each other’s arms, sharing a long embrace followed by no small number of kisses.

“I–  I thought I’d lost you forever, Jules.”

“And I you, Katie.”

Lysette smiled a bit.  “You two are still my prisoners, so I can’t leave you to wander around.  However, I see no reason why the two of you can’t stay in the same cell, at least for the time being.  I would like to talk to both of you, but I think you two would prefer some time to yourselves.”

Both of them nodded.

“I will be back shortly before dinner.”

Lysette closed and latched the door behind her, letting her avatar remain inside to keep watch of the prisoners while her main body stood outside, enjoying the sun’s rays glistening upon her pale face.  Despite those demonic impulses still gnawing away at her, urging her to be done with the prisoners once and for all, Lysette could only smile thinking of the two lovers’ reunion.  And she realized that she wanted to create many more such heartwarming moments of protecting lives, not just stealing them away.

Chapter 204: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112051726

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 206: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112051729